Has anyone handled any of Dynasty forges new Jian and Dao? There Japanese swords have a very good reputaion I am hopeing that their Chinese swords are up to scratch, got my eyes on one of their Manchurian Dao.

I know very little about Japanese and Chinese period swords. I do, however, know a fairish bit about medieval European swords. When I went to look at their site, I noted that they had European swords, and took a look. So, please remember that my comments are about those swords only.

They claim Oakeshott typology, but they do not follow it. Their Type XI is fine with respect to blade geometry and the fuller- fairly straight blade, acute angled point, long narrow fuller- but the pommel is a type found much later- I think it's exclusive to the 15th C.

The type XVI isn't very close. Pommel type is appropriate, but the blade geometry is wrong; It's more like an XVII with a fuller. XVI's are transitional, though, and it's possible this represents an example I haven't seen.

The XVIIIa is flat out wrong. The pommel is fine, but the blade in no way represents an XVIIIa. The blade geometry is that of a X, XI, or XII, but with a flattened diamond characteristic of the XV, as opposed to the hollow ground style of the XVIII's. The pommel is fine, but that's not saying much- you can put a wheel pommel and virtually any medieval sword and it would be accurate.

OTOH, they're not primarily makers of European swords. It's entirely possible that their Chinese blades are perfect; I wouldn't know the difference between an early Ming and an early Qing if stabbed in the behind with both, so I have no standing to comment. But I invite you to compare, in particular, their XVIIIa with this example:

It says XVIIIb, but there's not a huge difference, and I think it's really an 'a', but we won't split hairs. It's important to note, I'm making no comment about any line other than their European medieval. I'm not qualified in any way. I would be concerned that, if they didn't do their research with those, that they might be equally slipshod with their other research. But, I just don't know, and will leave that assessment to those more knowledgeable.

Tony Mosen wrote:Scott is selling them' so that says something about the quality..

Actually, I do not sell Dynasty Forge swords, I sell Huanuo & Hanwei swords. I just had a look at Dynasty's site & it appears to me that that are simply rebranding Huanuo swords with mono-steel blades, in different variations than I sell or were historically made. Take their version of the Jie Yun JIan for example (http://www.dynastyforge.com/index.php/C ... flyer.html) It has a wooden scabbard & grip. Nothing wrong with that, but the original has a red ray skin covered scabbard and a yellow cord grip wrap, that is how we offer it at Seven Stars with a folded steel blade instead of the mono-steel blade they offer (http://sevenstarstrading.com/site/huanuo/jueyuejian/). As far as I can tell from the photo on Dynasty's site, the fittings are the same as what we offer & accurate.